The Saudi Arabia ComSoc Chapter Participated to the International IoT Conference and Exhibition

By Abdullah Almuttiri - Saudi Arabia Chapter Chair

The International IoT Conference and Exhibition is an annual event that takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This year’s event, from 28-30 January, attracted over 17,000 visitors including high profile industry professionals, engineers, entrepreneurs and academicians. The IoT conference also showcased an exhibition of products and services from over 80 key-brand exhibitors and industry drivers including Ericsson and ABB, and operators, service providers, and developers. The ComSoc Saudi Arabia Chapter co-organized workshops at the conference. The steering committee members presented a keynote speech and two workshops.

Dr. Abdullah Almuttiri, chapter chair, delivered a workshop entitled “Innovation through the marriage of IoT, Big Data, Cloud and 5G.” In his workshop he presented an overview of the Industrial Revolutions from the fist to the current I4 revolution. He then defined what Internet of Things is followed by interconnected technologies. He then delved into what Big Data is and what cloud computing is before he explained the integration of those two technologies to leverage IoT advancement. He then described the technology that will leverage IoT connectivity across all level of networks and bands, from SigFox and LoRa to the revolutionary 5G cellular network. He closed the workshop with the definition of Internet of Everything (IoE) and the factors that will contribute to implement IoT at a massive scale.

Prof. Muhammad Khurram Khan, chapter vice chair, participated as a keynote speaker with a topic entitled “Establishing trust in the Internet of Things: challenges and solutions.” The abstract of his speech is: “The agglomeration of embedded intelligence and Internet connectivity plays a key role in upheaving the paradigm of Internet of Things (IoT). It is estimated that there would be approximately 100 billion connected devices with a total economic impact of USD 3.9 trillion to USD 11.1 trillion by 2025. Consumers embrace potential advantages of IoT products and applications because of the benefits and services they get. However, when these smart IoT devices collect and share personal information, consumers become very concerned about the security of devices and privacy of their personal information. If reasonable security is not provided and consumer’s personal information is exploited for criminal acts, then trust upon adopting these IoT devices could be compromised. Hence, the prosperity and wide adoption of IoT devices are highly reliant on establishing consumer’s trust. In this talk, we will firstly provide a definition of the consumer trust upon adopting IoT technology. Secondly, we will present a conceptual model to reflect the influential factors that stimulate consumer’s trust, so that they could willingly adopt, purchase and use IoT products. Furthermore, we will highlight the security requirements to be considered while developing IoT products and applications. Moreover, we will also shed light on ‘five acts’, which could violate security and privacy of IoT consumers. In addition, four W’s of privacy to engage consumers with high-level of satisfaction in adopting IoT products and applications will be discussed. Finally, we would identify a number of future challenges that need to be resolved in IoT products and services, and some recommendations would also be addressed to preserve consumer’s trust in IoT.”

Dr. Imad ben Dhau, chapter vice chair, delivered a workshop on the “Internet of Things for Smart Grid: challenges and opportunities.” The summary of his workshop follows. Smartgrid is an emerging technology, which aims at making the utility grid intelligent, reliable, secure, efficient, sustainable, green, etc. The smart-grid is a system of systems, which is composed of, among others, distributed microgrid, transmission and distribution system, substations, feeders, advanced metering infrastructure, bulk-power generator, and market services. Communication and information technology is believed to be the central topic of the smart-grid. This talk discusses the challenges and opportunities of using the Internet of Things as an ICT technology for the establishment of the smart-grid. The architecture of a modern smartgrid along with the various communication and security solutions is described in depth using the latest research results.

The ComSoc Saudi Arabia Chapter promotes ComSoc activities and values their members, striving to deliver activities on state-of-the-art technologies that are trending nowadays. The Chapter has develped a promising plan for their members for 2018 and will work hard to achieve those defined goals. For any inquiries please do not hesitate to contact the chapter chair, Dr. Abdullah Almuttiri, at SaudiArabia_Chapter@comsoc.org or a.s.a@ieee.org.